Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Mr. Don Morin announced in the Assembly on February 14th that a number of government functions will be privatized; among them, computer systems and services. A number of northern businesses currently providing these services have concerns as to how this privatization will be achieved. They believe that an open and competitive tree market provides the government with the best goods and services at the lowest prices, and wish to be consulted on the privatization plan that will be executed.

At this time, they have not been consulted and are concerned that a privatization plan may have been developed completely in house without any consultation from private companies arid industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The gentlemen, among others, who are responsible for bringing light to this Chamber and other buildings; Dave Maguire, an employee of NTPC.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I look on the orders of the day, I do not find a position for errors or correction so I'll make my statement here.

Last Friday, I made a statement in this House regarding speech and language services offered by Stanton Regional Hospital. In my statement, I incorrectly advised that the number of speech and language pathologists available to the Western Arctic were two positions. In actual fact, the number is four, with a possibility of a fifth position which would service Yellowknife schools.

I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was $18 million set up as a fund. If there is a contribution of $900,000 out of that, does that come out of $18 million? Or, is it going to be $18 million plus $900,000 in kind?

The $900,000, does that come out of the $18 million pot?

I find it rather embarrassing that a government, particularly the Government of the Northwest Territories, would take on the responsibility of the federal government. If someone can't get an agreement in place, we will take that responsibility on and put funds in place. We will do some in the West, too. We don't have a budget in place for an amount of money that is going to be requested of this government over the next few years. I don't think it is going to be a fiscally responsible approach to any organization.

Regarding the $900,000, there seems to be some dispute as to the evaluation. Can I ask who came up with the $900,000 figure or how it was arrived at?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate Mr. Kakfwi's explanation of the program, but I want to ensure that I have it right. The federal government, in an agreement with Nunavut, put $15 million into a fund, then the territorial government came along and decided they would put $18 million into a similar type of fund.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I believe the Minister is aware of the ongoing problems of providing services in the areas of speech and language pathology for school-age children. I know the government isn't able to provide services to all the children in the Western Arctic who require speech therapy with the current staff of two. Would the Minister be prepared to review the current regulations with a view to amending them to enable private speech and language pathology clinics coverage under the NWT health care system in keeping with the government's priority of privatization?

Also, could the Minister report -- if not today, at a later time -- to this House on the status of the additional speech language pathologists that were promised by the previous government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to have the House recognize Dave Talbot who is the regional vice-president of the Union of Northern Workers.

---Applause